50 Pfennigs

Krefeld's 1919 notgeld issue came out of the same municipal crisis hitting most mid-sized German industrial cities that year — the Reichsbank was hoarding coin and small-denomination paper, leaving city governments to fill the gap themselves. Worms & Lüthgen, a local Krefeld print house, handled the job in-house, which was unusual enough; most comparable cities contracted out to Leipzig or Berlin trade printers. The result is a note that looks exactly like what it is: a local solution to a local problem, printed quickly by people who knew the town better than any outside firm would.